A Convergence is to be the start of a wide-spread dialogue about the importance of identity-based discourse in the practice and pedagogy of design of the built environment.

This convergence marks the formation of a regional network of equity-focused design student groups. We have a chance to grow and merge the many individual conversations happening in our departments and in our schools. The SAM list did not tell us anything we did not already know; however, it did spark broad conversation where there had been uneasy silence. We must not return to that silence. We must engage in a collective restructuring of the design disciplines and actively question the nature of design work and how that work intersects with gender and other personal identities.

We reject the notion of ‘objective’ design. We must embrace a diverse spectrum of identities and acknowledge systemic practices of privileging or disadvantaging communities. Critically engaging with our own identities and the way we can or cannot move through the world is a fundamental part of any practice, especially design.

Among the things we learn in design school is how to engage in a design practice—how to think and produce design. The conditions in which we learn become the conditions we practice and reproduce. This is one reason why we must so urgently work to transform the culture of design education.

The intention of the Convergence is to engage in the work of this transformation, acknowledging our shared participation in the existing culture, and agreeing that this must be a collective effort.